GOOD 
READING 
for  SOUND 
MONEY 
DEMOCRATS 


HON.  W.  BOURKE  COCKRAN’S 

SPEECH 

AT  MADISON  SQUARE  GARDEN 
NEW  YORK  CITY 

IN  REPLY  TO  CANDIDATE  BRYAN. 


TWENTY  QUESTIONS  PROPOUNDED  EDITORIALLY 
BY  THE  NEW  YORK  WORLD  TO  CANDIDATE  BRYAN  WHICH 

HE  HAS  FAILED  TO  ANSWER. 


2 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  W.  BOURKE  COCKRAN. 


SPEECH  OF  THE 

Hon.  W.  Bourke  Cockran 

IN  ANSWER  TO 

CANDIDATE  BRYAN 

jT 

Delivered  at  Madison  Square  Garden,  New 

York,  August  18. 


Mr.  Cockran’s  address  was  as  follows: 

Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  Fellow  Democrats  All: 
[Applause.]  With  the  inspiring  strains  of  that  national  song  still 
ringing  in  our  ears,  who  can  doubt  the  issue  of  this  campaign? 
[Applause.]  Stripped  of  all  verbal  disguise,  it  is  an  issue  of  com¬ 
mon  honesty,  an  issue  between  the  honest  discharge  and  the  dis¬ 
honest  repudiation  of  public  and  private  obligations.  It  is  a  ques- 
tion  as  to  whether  the  powers  of  this  government  shall  be  used  to 
protect  honest  industry  or  tempt  the  citizen  to  dishonesty. 

On  this  question  honest  men  can  not  differ.  It  is  one  of 
morals  and  of  justice.  It  involves  the  existence  of  social  order. 
It  is  the  contest  for  civilization  itself.  A  democratic  convention 
may  renounce  the  democratic  faith,  but  the  democracy  remains 
faithful  to  democratic  principles.  Democratic  leaders  may  betray 
a  convention  to  the  populists,  but  they  can  not  seduce  the  footsteps 
of  democratic  voters  from  the  pathway  of  honor  and  of  justice.  A 
candidate  bearing  the  mandate  of  a  democratic  convention  may  in 
this  hall  open  a  canvass  leveled  against  the  foundations  of  social 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  W.  BOURKE  COCKRAN. 


8 


order,  and  he  beholds  the  democratic  masses  confronting  him 
organized  for  the  defense. 

Fellow  democrats,  let  us  not  disguise  from  ourselves  the  fact 
that  we  bear  in  this  contest  a  serious  and  grave  and  solemn  burden 
of  duty.  We  must  raise  our  hands  against  the  nominee  of  our 
party,  and  we  must  do  it  to  preserve  the  future  of  that  party  itself. 
We  must  oppose  the  nominee  of  the  Chicago  convention,  and  we 
know  full  well  that  the  success  of  our  opposition  will  mean  our 
own  exclusion  from  public  life,  but  we  will  be  consoled  and  grati¬ 
fied  by  the  reflection  that  it  will  prove  that  the  American  people 
can  not  be  divided  into  parties  on  a  question  of  simple  morals  or 
of  common  honesty. 

We  would  look  in  vain  through  the  speech  delivered  here  one 
week  ago  to  find  a  true  statement  of  the  issue  involved  in  this  can¬ 
vass.  Indeed,  I  believe  it  is  doubtful  if  the  candidate  himself  quite 
understands  the  nature  of  the  faith  which  he  professes.  I  say  this 
not  in  criticism  of  his  ability,  but  in  justice  to  his  morality.  I  be¬ 
lieve  that  if  he  himself  understood  the  inevitable  consequences  of 
the  doctrines  which  he  preaches  that  his  own  hands  would  be  the 
very  first  to  tear  down  the  platform  on  which  he  stands.  We  must 
all  remember  that  lurid  rhetoric  which  glowed  as  fiercely  in  the 
western  skies  as  that  sunlight  which  through  the  past  week  foretold 
the  torrid  heat  of  the  ensuing  day,  and  here  upon  this  platform  we 
find  that  same  rhetoric  as  mild,  as  insipid  as  the  waters  of  a  stag¬ 
nant  pool. 

He  is  a  candidate  who  was  swept  into  the  nomination  by  a 
wave  of  popular  enthusiasm  awakened  by  appeals  to  prejudice  and 
greed.  He  is  a  candidate  who,  declaring  that  this  was  a  revolu¬ 
tionary  movement,  no  sooner  found  himself  face  to  face  with  the 
American  feeling  than  he  realized  that  this  soil  is  not  propitious  to 
revolution;  that  the  people  of  this  country  will  not  change  the  in¬ 
stitutions  which  have  stood  the  tests  and  experiences  of  a  century 
for  institutions  based  upon  the  fantastic  dreams  of  populist  agita¬ 
tors;  that  the  American  nation  will  never  consent  to  substitute  the 
republic  of  Washington,  of  Jefferson  and  of  Jackson  for  the  repub¬ 
lic  of  an  Altgeld,  a  Tillman  or  a  Bryan. 

Whatever  change  may  have  come  over  his  manner  as  a  candi- 


4 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  W.  BOURKE  COCKRAN. 


date,  however  much  the  vehemence  of  his  eloquence  may  have 
been  reduced,  two  things  for  which  he  stands  remains  unaltered. 
On  this  platform  he  defended  the  most  revolutionary  plank  of  the 
Chicago  convention  in  speeches  vehement  but  not  less  earnest  than 
that  in  which  he  supported  their  adoption.  On  this  platform  he 
defended  the  populistic  program  of  overthrowing  the  integrity  of 
the  supreme  court.  If  there  be  any  fruit  which  has  grown  for  the 
benefit  of  all  mankind  out  of  the  establishment  of  our  republic  it 
has  been  the  demonstration  that  it  is  possible  by  the  organization 
of  an  independent  tribunal  to  safeguard  the  rights,  of  every  citizen 
and  protect  those  natural  privileges  against  any  invasion  from 
whatever  source  or  however  powerful  might  be  the  antagonizing 
elements. 

The  very  existence  of  that  power  presupposes  the  existence  of 
an  independent  tribunal,  yet  we  have  this  populist  convention,  be¬ 
cause  a  populist  measure  was  condemned  as  unconstitutional,  pro¬ 
posing  not  to  amend  the  constitution  in  the  ordinary  way  prescribed 
by  that  instrument  itself,  but  proposing  to  pack  the  court  so  that  it 
will  pronounce  those  laws  to  be  constitutional  which  the  constitution 
itself  condemns,  a  proposal  to  make  the  courts  of  law  instruments  of 
lawlessness;  to  violate  that  sacred  pact  between  the  states  on 
which  the  security  of  this  nation  rests;  to  profane  the  temple 
erected  for  its  protection  by  the  hands  of  false  priests,  who,  though 
sworn  to  defend  it,  will  be  appointed  to  destroy  it. 

In  the  time  to  which  I  must  confine  myself  to-night  I  can  do 
nothing  but  examine  that  one  question  which  Mr.  Bryan  himself 
declared  to  be  the  overshadowing  issue  of  this  campaign.  I  am  a 
little  puzzled  when  I  read  this  speech  to  decide  just  what  Mr. 
Bryan  himself  imagines  will  be  the  fruit  of  a  change  in  the  standard 
of  value  throughout  this  country.  I  do  not  believe  that  any  man 
can  follow  wholly  with  the  speech,  because  if  he  dissents  with  one 
set  of  conclusions  he  has  got  to  read  but  a  few  paragraphs  and  he 
will  find  another.  If  Mr.  Bryan  could  show  me  that  by  any  means 
known  to  heaven  or  on  earth  wages  could  be  increased  I  will  be 
ready  to  support  him,  because  I  know  of  no  test  of  prosperity  ab¬ 
solutely  infallible  except  the  rate  of  wages  paid  to  laborers. 

When  we  come  to  find  how  Mr.  Bryan  expects  to  increase  the 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  W.  BOURKE  COCKRAN. 


wages  of  labor  we  find  ourselves  lost  in  the  maze  of  contradiction. 
No  man  can  tell  how  or  where  or  when  the  wages  of  the  working¬ 
men  are  to  be  increased,  but  any  one  who  examines  the  scheme  can 
see  that  the  inevitable  tendency,  the  inevitable  consequence  of  a 
debasement  in  the  standard  of  value  must  be  a  reduction  in  the 
rate  of  wages — and  that  is  the  conspiracy  in  which  the  populists 
are  engaged. 

Now,  Mr.  Bryan  tells  us  that  he  wants  to  cheapen  the  dollar; 
that  he  wants  to  increase  the  volume  of  money.  I  do  not  believe  that 
any  man  who  ever  lived  could  quite  understand  a  populist’s  notion 
of  what  money  is,  further  than  he  believes  it  is  a  desirable  thing  to 
get  and  that  he  is  not  very  particular  about  the  means  by  which  he 
can  get  his  hands  on  it. 

Nothing  is  more  common  than  the  mistake  that  money  and 
property  are  identical.  They  are  not.  There  may  be  a  very  large 
volume  of  circulating  medium  and  very  great  poverty.  The  issue 
of  paper  money  simply  is  no  more  an  increase  of  wealth  than  the 
issue  by  an  individual  of  his  promissory  note  would  show  an  increase 
of  his  property.  As  a  matter  of  fact  an  increase  in  the  coinage  is 
no  proof  of  an  increase  in  property,  but  may  be  a  strong  proof  of  a 
decrease  in  wealth.  It  is  not  the  volume  of  money,  but  the  activity 
of  money,  that  counts. 

The  basis  of  sound  trade  is  sound  money.  [Applause.]  Money 
which  is  intrinsically  valuable,  money  which  like  the  gold  coinage 
of  this  country  the  government  can  not  affect  if  it  tried  to.  I  can  take 
a  $10  gold  piece  and  can  defy  all  the  power  of  all  the  governments 
of  the  earth  to  take  5  cents  of  value  from  it.  Having  earned  it  by 
the  sweat  of  my  brow,  having  earned  it  by  the  exercise  of  my  brain, 
having  earned  it  by  the  exchange  of  my  commodities,  I  can  go  to  the 
uttermost  ends  of  the  earth,  and  wherever  I  present  it  its  value 
will  be  unquestioned  and  unchallenged.  That  gold  dollar,  this 
meeting,  the  democratic  party,  the  honest  masses  of  this  country 
without  distinction  of  party  divisions,  demand  shall  be  paid  to 
the  laborer  when  he  earns  it  and  that  no  power  on  earth  shall 
cheat  him  of  the  sweat  of  his  brow.  / 

It  is  perfectly  clear  that  the  purpose  of  the  populists  is  to  put 
up  the  prices  of  certain  commodities.  Mr.  Bryan’s  language  is 


6 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  W.  BOURKE  COCKRAN. 


that  he  is  going  to  improve  the  conditions  of  the  people  of  this 
country.  I  do  not  suppose  he  claims  he  can  multiply  the  number 
of  chairs  upon  this  platform  or  upon  this  floor,  although  he  has 
shown  his  capacity  to  empty  them.  If  he  is  going  to  work  any 
change  in  the  conditions  of  men  he  must  increase  the  material 
possessions  of  some  part  of  the  community. 

Now,  if  he  got  possession  of  the  government  to-morrow  he  would 
not  create  one  single  thing  of  value  by  any  exercise  of  governmen¬ 
tal  power  in  the  world.  No  power  ever  yet  exercised  by  tyrant  or 
constitutional  monarch  can  cause  a  barren  field  to  become  fruitful, can 
cause  two  blades  of  grass  to  grow  where  one  grew  before,  can  bring 
together  the  stones  that  compose  this  building  and  raise  them  into 
a  stately  temple  dedicated  to  political  discussion.  No,  it  requires 
the  labor  of  man  and  the  labor  of  man  alone  to  create  wealth.  If 
Mr.  Bryan  is  going  to  enrich  somebody  the  thing  which  he  means 
to  bestow  on  him  he  must  take  from  somebody  else.  Who  is  to  be 
despoiled  and  who  is  to  be  enriched  by  the  exercise  of  this  new 
scheme  of  government?  [A  cry  of  “Silver  mine  owners.”] 

My  friends,  the  silver  mine  owners  will  get  cheated  with  the 
rest.  A  government  never  can  be  generous,  because  if  it  be  gener¬ 
ous  to  one  it  must  be  oppressive  to  another.  But  Mr.  Bryan’s  financial 
scheme  contemplates  an  increase  of  the  price  of  certain  commo¬ 
dities.  We  are  coming  now  pretty  close  to  the  wood  pile  behind 
which  the  African  is  concealed.  Now,  if  everything  in  this  world  or 
in  this  country,  including  labor,  be  increased  in  value  to-morrow  in 
like  proportion,  not  one  of  us  would  be  affected  at  all.  If  everything 
be  increased  i  o  per  cent  in  value  we  would  pay  io  per  cent  in  addition 
for  what  we  would  buy  and  get  io  per  cent  more  for  what  we  would 
sell,  and  we  would  be  exactly  in  the  same  place  we  occupied  before. 

Therefore,  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  is  not  the  lame  and  impotent 
conclusion  which  this  populist  revolution  contemplates.  What, 
then,  is  it?  It  is  an  increase  in  the  price  of  commodities  and 
allowing  labor  to  shift  for  itself.  If  the  price  of  commodities  be 
increased  and  the  price  of  labor  be  left  stationary,  why,  that  means 
a  cutting  down  of  the  rate  of  wages.  If  instead  of  a  dollar  which 
consists  of  a  given  quantity  of  gold  equal  to  ioo  cents  anywhere  in  the 
world  with  the  purchasing  power  of  ioo  cents,  the  laborer  is  to  be 


7 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  w'  BOURKE  COCKRAN. 


paid  in  dollars  worth  50  cents  each,  why,  he  can  only  buy  half  as 
much  with  a  day’s  wages  as  he  buys  now. 

Wage  earners, -Mr.  Bryan  says,  know  that ’while  an  honest 
money  standard  raises  the  purchasing  power  of  the  dollar  it  also 
makes  it  more  difficult  to  obtain  possession  of  that  dollar.  They 
know  that  employment  is  less  permanent,  loss  of  work  more  prob¬ 
able  and  re-employment  less  certain.  If  that  means  anything  it 
means  that  a  cheap  dollar  would  give  him  more  employment,  more 
frequent  employment,  more  work  and  a  chance  to  get  re-employ¬ 
ment  after  he  was  discharged.  If  that  means  anything  it  means 
that  if  the  laborer  is  willing  to  have  his  wages  cut  down  he  will  get 
more  work.  But  a  diminution  in  the  rate  of  wages  does  not  in¬ 
crease  the  scope  of  employment. 

The  more  abundant  the  product,  the  higher  the  wages.  There 
can  not  be  an  abundant  product  unless  labor  is  extensively  em¬ 
ployed.  Mr.  Bryan  would  have  you  believe  that  prosperity  is  ad¬ 
vanced  by  cheapening  the  rate  of  wages,  but  the  fall  in  the  rate  of 
wages  always  comes  from  a  narrow  production  and  narrow  produc¬ 
tion  means  there  is  little  demand  for  labor  in  the  market.  When 
after  the  panic  of  1873  the  price  of  labor  fell  to  90  cents  a  day  it 

was  harder  to  obtain  labor  than  when  the  rate  of  labor  was  $2,  and 
the  difference  between  the  populist  who  seeks  to  cut  down  the 
rate  of  wages  and  the  democrat  who  seeks  to  protect  it  is  that  the 
democrat  believes  that  high  wages  and  prosperity  are  synonymous, 
and  this  populist  wants  to  cut  the  rate  of  wages  in  order  that  he 
may  tempt  the  farmer  to  make  war  upon  his  own  workingmen. 

Mr.  Bryan  leads  the  van  in  saying  that  it  is  the  creditors  he  is 
after.  In  order  that  you  should  understand  just  how  a  change  in 
the  standard  of  value  enables  men  to  cheat  their  creditors  you  have 
to  consider  the  function  which  money  plays  in  measuring  debts. 
If  I  had  paid  $10  for  ten  yards  of  cloth  to  be  delivered  to  me  next 
week  and  in  the  interim  the  government  should  pass  a  law  declar¬ 
ing  that  hereafter  the  yard  measure  should  consist  of  eighteen 
inches  and  that  all  existing  contracts  should  be  settled  in  that  sys¬ 
tem  of  measure  I  would  be  cheated  out  of  half  the  cloth  for  which  I 
had  paid. 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  I  owed  a  cloth  merchant  for  ten  yards 
of  cloth,  which  he  had  delivered  to  me  and  which  was  payable 
next  week,  and  in  the  meantime  the  government  would  change  the 
standard  of  value  and  cut  down  the  unit  of  coinage  one-half,  then 


8 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  W.  BOURKE  COCKRAN. 


I  would  settle  that  debt  in  $5  and  the  cloth  merchant  would  have 
been  cheated.  Now  the  populist  loves  to  say  that  the  creditor  is  a 
person  who  oppresses  the  western  farmer;  the  creditors  of  this 
country  are  not  the  bankers;  they  are  not  the  so-called  capitalists; 
they  are  the  laborers  and  it  is  at  the  expense  of  labor  that  this 
change  is  made. 

The  laborer  is  always  a  creditor  for  at  least  one  day’s  work. 
When  any  man  can  show  me  a  laborer  who  has  been  paid  in  ad¬ 
vance  for  a  day’s  work,  I  will  show  him  a  laborer  who  is  a  debtor. 
The  laborer  by  the  very  law  of  his  being  a  creditor  for  at  least  one 
day’s  work  is  generally  a  creditor  for  a  week’s  work  or  two  weeks’ 
work.  Every  great  industrial  enterprise  has  for  its  chief  creditors 
its  own  laborers.  The  heaviest  account  in  every  department  of 
industry,  whatever  it  may  be,  is  always  the  wages  account. 

The  pretense  that  the  farmer  of  Nebraska  is  suffering  under 
the  weight  of  a  mortgage  contracted  under  a  metal  which  has  stead¬ 
ily  increased  in  value  is  but  a  populistic  metaphor.  Two-thirds 
of  the  farmers  have  no  mortgage  debts  whatever.  I  do  not  believe 
there  is  5  per  cent  of  them  that  owes  a  mortgage  over  three  years 
old,  during  which  time  there  has  been  no  change  in  the  value  of 
the  metal.  This  proposal  of  the  populists  is  an  intent  to  enlist  the 
farmer  in  a  conspiracy  to  reduce  the  wages  paid  this  labor  that  he 
may  have  a  larger  proportion  of  his  own  products,  and  they  are 
willing  to  cut  down  the  wages  of  every  man  who  works  in  cities, 
who  toils  at  the  bench,  who  digs  in  the  mines,  who  manages  the 
train,  in  the  hope  that  they  can  ride  into  power,  on  a  wave  of  cupid¬ 
ity  and  greed  awakened  in  the  breast  of  the  voter. 

But,  my  friends,  it  is  a  tremendous  vindication  of  American 
citizenship  that  this  attempt  to  enlist  the  farming  and  agricultural 
members  of  this  community  into  this  conspiracy  has  failed,  mis¬ 
erably,  utterly,  absolutely.  Every  western  state  which  in  1890  and 
in  1892  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  populists  and  went  into  the 
Farmers’  Alliance,  before  their  real  purposes  were  executed,  was 
purified,  and  the  populistic  forces  scattered  out  of  existence  when 
the  farmers  of  this  country  understood  precisely  what  the  populists 
meant  for  their  welfare  was  really  for  their  ruin. 

The  farmer  who,  when  this  country  was  in  danger,  shouldered 
his  musket  to  set  it  aside  when  the  last  shot  had  been  fired  on  the 
southern  battlefield,  whose  moderation  prevented  the  political 
warriors  at  Washington  from  pursuing  a  policy  of  discrimination 
and  punishment  in  the  southern  states — that  farmer  who  made  the 
policy  of  the  north  a  policy  of  conciliation,  of  forgiveness,  of 
reunion,  whose  hand  it  was  that  made  ruin  of  her  cities  and  ashes 
of  her  homes,  received  her  once  more  and  said,  “Live  in  peace  and 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  W.  BOURKE  COCKRAN. 


9 


sin  no  more.”  That  farmer  to-day  is  the  mainstay  of  order  and  of 
property  as  he  was  the  mainstay  of  the  union. 

There  was  a  populistic  delegation  from  states  that  were  dem¬ 
ocratic,  but  it  is  a  significant  fact  that  every  northern  state  in 
which  there  was  a  chance  of  electing  a  democratic  governor  or  of 
choosing  democratic  electors,  with  the  exception  of  Missouri  and 
Indiana,  stood  boldly  and  firmly  for  the  honest  money  standard  at 
Chicago  and  they  were  submerged  by  a  wave  of  populism  from  the 
south. 

My  friends,  there  has  been  a  great  change  in  the  democratic 
organization  of  the  southern  states.  The  men  who,  from  a  mis¬ 
taken  sense  -of  loyalty,  followed  their  states  out  of  the  union,  whose 
gallantry  in  war,  whose  fortunes  in  defeat  won  the  admiration  of 
the  civilized  world,  the  men  whose  virtues  commanded  the  support 
of  northern  public  opinion  in  the  attempt  to  overturn  carpetbag 
governments  in  the  southern  states,  the  men  who  led  their  people 
through  ah  the  troubled  period  of  reconstruction  back  into  a  full 
union  with  the  sister  states,  these  men,  like  Hampton  in  North 
Carolina  2nd  Caffrey  in  Louisiana,  have  been  swept  from  power — 
a  new  set  has  got  into  the  saddle,  a  set  of  leaders  of  which  Tillman 
is  the  exponent,  who  boldly  unfurled  the  sectional  flag  at  Chicago 
and  declared  that  this  populist  movement  is  a  direct  movement 
against  i.he  prosperity  of  the  east. 

Me  t  of  New  York,  toilers  of  America,  guardians  of  your  own 
homes  will  you  allow  your  rate  of  wages  to  be  affected — [cries  of 
“Never.  Never”] — by  any  man  who  never  has  paid  wages  at  all  if 
he  could  get  out  of  it?  Will  you  submit  to  this  conspiracy  be¬ 
tween  the  professional  farmers,  the  farmers  who  cultivate  the 
quarrels  of  their  neighbors,  farmers  who  labor  with  their  jaws,  pop¬ 
ulist  agitators  of  the  west  and  the  unreconciled  slave-holders  of  the 
south. 

This  is  a  conspiracy  between  professional  farmers  who  want  to 
pay  low  wages  and  the  unreconciled  slaveholder  who  would  like  to 
pay  no  Wages  at  all.  [Applause.]  Here  is  the  real  root  of  this 
conspiracy.  Mr.  Bryan  did  not  create  it.  No  man  can  create  a 
movement  like  this.  The  forces  that  created  it  are  active  and  have 
•been  working  in  a  thousand  different  directions.  Mr.  Bryan,  rep¬ 
resenting  this  theory,  is  but  like  a  drop  of  water  on  the  crest  of  the 
wave,  more  conspicuous,  but  no  more  important,  than  the  millions 
of  drops  that  form  its  base. 

The  populistic  movement  is  the  attempt  of  these  professional 
farmers,  of  these  men  who  are  unwilling  to  share  with  the  laborer, 
to  appeal  to  their  greed.  He  is  an  enemy  of  public  order,  he  is  an 
obstacle  to  progress,  he  is  a  conspirator  against  the  peace  and  pros- 


10 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  W.  BOURKE  COCKRAN. 


perity  of  the  industry  of  the  country.  I  have  said  that  the  laborer 
is  the  object  of  this  conspiracy,  and  he  is.  But  let  no  man  imagine 
that  if  they  are  successful  the  injury  would  all  be  borne  by  the  man 
who  works  with  his  hands.  He  would  be  the  last  to  suffer  and  the 
last  to  recover  from  its  effects.  But  the  shock  to  civilization  which 
would  ensue  from  such  a  breach  of  public  and  private  faith  would 
be  irreparable.  Its  effect  no  man  could  measure  from  any  experi¬ 
ence  of  the  human  race.  We  can  not  tell  to  what  degree  it  would 
paralyze  industry. 

If  I  were  asked  to  define  civilization  I  should  say  it  was  “in¬ 
dustrial  co-operation.  ”,  Everything  that  a  man  does  for  his  own 
benefit  acts  directly  upon  the  interests  of  his  neighbors.  No  man 
can  stand  alone  in  a  civilized  community.  His  interests,  his  pros¬ 
pects,  his  fortunes  are  to  some  extent  shared  by  Tiis  fellows. 
There  is  not  an  ear  of  corn  ripening  in  the  western  field  that  does 
not  affect  the  prices  of  bread  to  you  and  to  me.  The  farmer  who 
scatters  seed  upon  the  ground,  by  that  act  starts  into  motion  the 
wheels  of  the  factory,  he  sharpens  the  tools  of  the  carpenter,  he 
stimulates  the  construction  of  railroads,  he  causes  the  engineers  to 
plan  new  bridges  crossing  currents,  new  tunnels  under  rivers,  new 
canals  joining  oceans  and  separating  continents. 

If  the  farmer  did  not  work,  if  the  miner  did  not  dig  in  the  sud- 
terranean  gallery,  every  other  department  of  industry  would 
languish,  for  men  would  not  produce  and  create  if  they  did  not  see 
in  the  industry  and  activity  of  others  a  prospect  of  a  demand  for 
the  commodity  which  they  produce,  and  so  every  man  in  the 
world  is  bound  closely  to  the  destiny  and  interests  of  his  fellow 
man.  Underlying  the  whole  scheme  of  civilization  is  the  confi¬ 
dence  men  have  in  each  other.  Confidence  in  their  honesty,  con¬ 
fidence  in  their  integrity,  confidence  in  their  industry,  confidence 
in  their  future. 

If  we  get  silver  coinage  to-morrow,  if  we  even  debase  our 
standard  of  value,  men  say  that  still  you  would  have  the  same 
property  you  have  to-day,  you  would  still  have  the  same  soil,  you 
would  still  have  the  same  continent.  And  it  is  true.  But  so  did 
the  Indian  have  the  same  rivers  that  roll  past  our  cities  and  turn 
the  wheels  of  commerce  as  they  pass.  So  the  mountains  were  full 
of  mineral  treasures  400  years  ago.  The  same  atmosphere  en¬ 
wrapped  this  continent;  the  same  soil  covered  the  fields;  the  same 
sun  shone  in  heaven,  and  yet  there  was  none  but  the  savage  pur¬ 
suing  the  pathway  of  war  through  the  trackless  forests,  and  the 
river  bore  no  single  living  thing  except  the  Indian  in  his  canoe 
pursuing  a  pathway  of  destruction. 

There  was  no  industrial  co-operation  because  the  Indian  was 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  W.  BOURKE  COCKRAN. 


11 


a  savage  and  did  not  understand  the  principles  by  which  men  aid 
each  other  in  taking  from  the  bosom  of  the  earth  the  wealth  which 
makes  life  bearable  and  develops  the  intelligence  which  makes  civ¬ 
ilization.  Anything  that  attacks  that  basis  of  human  confidence  is 
a  crime  against  civilization  and  a  blow  against  the  foundations  of 
social  order. 

Wherever  you  find  populists  assembled  you  will  find  discus¬ 
sions  proceeding  upon  the  theory  that  men  are  hostile  to  each  other 
in  their  interests;  that  the  condition  of  life  is  one  of  contest.  At 
Chicago  Mr.  Bryan  declared:  “When  you  come  before  us  and  tell 
us  that  we  shall  disturb  your  business  interests,  we  reply  that  you 
have  disturbed  our  business  interests.”  [A  voice:  “He  was 
right.”]  He  was,  my  friend.  When  a  man  loses  all  sense  he  has 
a  right  to  defy  those  who  possess  any.  [Laughter.] 

In  a  convention  of  extremists  the  most  excitable  will  always 
be  selected  for  a  leader.  Your  prospects  are  not  bad.  I  merely 
desire  to  call  the  attention  of  this  gathering  to  the  character  of  that 
speech,  to  the  underlying  spirit  that  pervades  it  and  then  to  ask  the 
workingman  of  this  country  to  ask  the  citizens  of  this  nation  if  the 
government  should  be  trusted  to  the  hands  of  men  whose  concep¬ 
tion  of  civilized  society  is  one  of  warfare  and  strife. 

We  believe  that  the  very  essence  of  civilization  is  mutual  in¬ 
terest,  mutual  forbearance,  mutual  co-operation.  We  believe 
the  world  has  got  past  the  time  when  men’s  hands  are  at  each 
other’s  throats.  We  believe  to-day  that  men  stand  shoulder  to 
shoulder,  working  together  for  a  common  purpose,  beneficial  to 
all — [applause] — and  we  believe  that  this  attempt  to  assail  wages, 
which  means  an  attempt  to  attack  the  prosperity  of  all,  will  be  re¬ 
sisted  not  by  a  class,  but  by  the  whole  nation.  What  labor  has 
gained  that  shall  it  keep.  The  rate  of  wages  paid  to  it  to-day  is 
the  lowest  rate  we  will  ever  willingly  accept. 

We  look  forward  to  a  farther  and  farther  increase  in  the  pros¬ 
perity  of  workingmen,  not  merely  by  an  increase  in  the  daily  wage, 
but  by  a  further  increase  in  the  purchasing  power  of  wages.  Men 
who  tell  us  that  the  price  of  farm  products  has  fallen  and  that  the 
farmer  for  that  reason  is  a  sufferer,  forget  that  while  the  price  of 
wages  has  risen  off  the  farm  the  efficiency  of  labor  has  increased; 
that  the  cost  of  production  has  been  reduced  through  the  aid  of 
machinery,  while  the  wages  of  the  individual  laborer  may  have 
risen.  While  wages  remain  at  their  present  rate  I  hope  there  will 
be  a  further  and  further  continuance  in  the  decrease  of  the  cost  of 
living.  There  is  no  way  in  which  I  can  be  admitted  to  a  share  of 
God’s  bounty  except  through  a  fall  in  the  price  of  the  necessaries 
of  life. 


12 


SPEECH  OF  HON.  W.  BOURKE  COCKRAN. 


While  we  have  in  existence  a  system  of  mutual  co-operation, 
which  is  but  another  name  for  civilized  society,  all  are  admitted  to 
a  share  in  every  bounty  which  providence  showers  upon  the  earth. 
The  dweller  in  the  tenement,  stooping  over  his  bench,  who  never 
sees  a  field  of  waving  corn,  who  has  never  inhaled  the  perfume  of 
grasses  and  flowers,  is  yet  made  the  participator  in  all  the  bounties 
of  Providence  in  the  purifying  influences  of  the  atmosphere,  in  the 
ripening  rays  of  the  sun,  when  the  product  of  the  soil  is  made 
cheaper  to  him  every  day  by  the  abundance  of  the  harvest.  [Ap¬ 
plause.] 

It  is  from  his  share  in  this  bounty  that  the  populist  wants  to 
exclude  the  American  workingman.  To  him  we  say,  in  the  name 
of  progress,  you  shall  neither  press  a  crown  of  thorns  upon  the 
brow  of  labor,  nor  press  a  scourge  upon  his  back.  [Applause.] 
You  shall  not  rob  him  of  study,  of  progress  in  the  skill  of  his  craft 
or  benefits  by  organization  of  the  members  who  work  with  him  at 
the  same  bench.  You  shall  not  obscure  the  golden  prospects  of  a 
further  improvement  in  his  condition  by  a  further  cheapening  of 
the  cost  of  living  as  well  as  by  a  further  depreciation  of  the  dollar 
which  is  paid  to  him.  [Applause.] 

The  man  who  raises  his  hand  against  the  progress  of  the  work¬ 
ingman  raises  his  hand  against  prosperity.  He  seeks  to  restrict 
the  volume  of  production,  he  seeks  to  degrade  the  condition  of  the 
man  who  is  steadily  improving  himself  and  in  his  own  improvement 
is  accomplishing  the  improvement  of  all  mankind,  but  this  attempt 
will  fail. 

I  do  not  regret  this  campaign.  The  time  has  come  when  the 
people  of  this  country  will  show  their  capacity  for  self-govern¬ 
ment.  They  will  prove  that  the  men  who  have  left  the  world  in 
the  pathway  of  progress  will  be  jealous  guardians  of  liberty  and  of 
order.  They  are  not  to  be  seduced  by  appeals  to  their  cupidity  or 
moved  by  threats  of  injury.  They  will  forever  guard  and  jealously 
guard  and  trim  the  lamp  of  enlightment  and  progress.  They  will 
ever  relentlessly  press  and  crush  under  their  heels  the  flaming 
torch  of  populist  dissent,  populist  agitation  and  populist  de¬ 
struction. 

When  this  tide  of  agitation  shall  have  receded,  this  tide  of 
populist  agitation,  this  assault  upon  common  honesty  and  upon  in¬ 
dustry  shall  have  been  abated  forever,  the  foundations  of  this  re¬ 
public  will  remain  undisturbed.  This  government  will  still  shelter 
a  people  indissolubly  wedded  to  liberty  and  order,  jealously  for- 
biddirig  any  distinction  of  burden  or  of  privilege,  conserving  prop¬ 
erty,  maintaining  morality,  resting  forever  upon  the  broad  basis  of 
American  patriotism  and  American  intelligence. 


NEW  YORK  WORLD  EDITORIAL. 


13 


EDITORIAL  IN  NEW  YORK  WORLD, 

AUGUST  14,  1 896. 


ARE  THE  WORLD’S  QUESTIONS  ANSWERED* 

On  Tuesday  The  World  propounded  to  Mr.  Bryan  twenty 
questions  on  the  silver  issue.  They  went,  as  we  think,  to  the  root 
of  the  matter.  Mr.  Bryan’s  able  speech,  devoted  mainly  to  free 
coinage,  is  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  public.  The  people  can  tell 
whether  he  has  answered  these  questions  convincingly  or  whether 
they  are  not  the  best  answer  to  his  speech.  For  convenience 
sake  the  inquiries  are  here  repeated: 

1.  When  in  the  history  of  this  country  has  silver  occupied 
'‘its  ancient  place  by  the  side  of  gold?”  Has  there  ever  been  a 
time  when  the  two  metals  circulated  upon  equal  terms  as  full-legal 
tender  money,  with  the  mints  open  to  the  free  and  unlimited  coin¬ 
age  of  both?  If  so,  when  was  it? 

2.  You  say  that  the  restoration  of  that  condition  will,  in  your 
judgment,  “restore  the  parity  between  money  and  property.” 
Will  you  kindly  explain  what  you  mean  by  this?  What  is  the 
“parity  between  money  and  property?”  Do  you  mean  that  the 
“restoration”  will  put  up  prices,  undo  the  cheapening  effects  of 
improved  machinery,  transportation,  etc.,  and  increase  the  cost  of 
living  to  all  classes  of  the  community?  If  so,  will  you  kindly  explain 
how  this  increase  in  the  cost  of  all  commodities  is  likely  to  pro¬ 
mote  “a  return  of  general  prosperity?”  Will  the  workingman, 
whose  wages  are  stationary,  or  nearly  so,  be  made  more  prosper¬ 
ous  by  having  to  pay  more  for  his  flour,  meat,  groceries,  chickens, 
eggs,  fruit,  vegetables,  clothing,  household  utensils,  rent,  and  all 
the  rest  of  it?  Will  even  the  farmer  be  better  off  with  a  double 
price  for  his  produce,  in  the  wholly  improbable  contingency  that 


14 


NEW  YORK  WORLD  EDITORIAL. 


Europe  will  consent  to  pay  it,  if  he  must  pay  double  for  everything 
he  has  to  buy?  , 

3.  You  point  us  to  “a  larger  field  of  usefulness  in  supporting 
the  gold  and  silver  coinage  of  the  Constitution.”  But  what  is  “the 
gold  and  silver  coinage  of  the  Constitution?”  In  what  clause  of 
the  Constitution,  or  in  which  of  the  fifteen  amendments,  does  the 
fundamental  law  prescribe  a  gold  and  silver  coinage  or  any  other 
coinage?  In  which  does  it  mention  any  coinage  further  than  to 
authorize  the  General  Government  to  “coin  money”  and  to  “regu¬ 
late  the  value  thereof?”  Acting  under  that  authority  Congress  at 
first  authorized  coinage  at  15  to  1.  Was  that  the  “gold  and  silver 
coinage  of  the  Constitution?”  If  so,  how  has  16  to  1  come  to  be 
the  coinage  of  the  Constitution?  Under  the  first  ratio  silver  was 
undervalued  and  refused  to  circulate  except  in  the  form  of  worn  and 
abraded  foreign  coins.  Our  own  silver  coins,  even  the  subsidiary 
pieces,  were  melted  down  for  bullion  because  they  were  worth 
about  3  per  cent  more  than  gold  dollars.  In  all  the  period  up  to 
the  time  of  the  great  silver  discoveries  Congress  sought  to  make 
the  coinage  ratio  the  same  as  the  commercial  ratio.  It  never 
authorized  coinage  at  any  other.  Was  that  the  “coinage  of  the 
Constitution?”  If  so,  will  it  be  a  return  to  it  for  us  now  to  estab¬ 
lish  free  coinage  at  the  ratio  of  16  to  1  when  the  commercial  ratio 
is  about  31  to  1  ? 

4.  Will  not  free  coinage  at  16  to  1  reduce  the  value  of  the 
dollar  unit  by  about  one-half? 

5.  Will  it  not  be  in  fact  a  repudiation  of  about  one-half  of 
of  all  our  debts,  public  and  private? 

6.  Is  there  not  danger  that  it  will  cause  the  return  to  us 
of  all  the  American  securities  held  abroad — Government,  railroad 
and  industrial  stocks  and  bonds — thus  precipitating  a  panic  of 
giant  proportions,  with  long  years  of  depression  to  follow? 

7.  Will  not  your  election  upon  the  Chicago  platform  cause 
the  calling  in,  between  November  and  March,  of  all  collectable 
debts,  all  loans,  all  mortgages  that  have  expired?  And  will  not 
this  produce  such  a  distress  as  this  country  has  never  known,  par¬ 
ticularly  in  the  West  and  South,  where  capital  and  credit  are  most 
needed  and  depend  upon  CONFIDENCE  as  their  basis? 

8.  Will  not  free  and  unlimited  coinage  drive  all  the  five  or 
six  hundred  millions  of  gold  and  gold  certificates  out  of  use  as 
money  or  as  bank  reserves?  Will  it  not  cause  a  currency  contrac- 


s 


NEW  YORK  WORLD  EDITORIAL. 


15 


tion  of  the  most  disastrous  proportions,  inasmuch  as  the  utmost 
capacity  of  the  mints  to  coin  silver  can  not  make  good  this  with¬ 
drawal  for  several  years  to  come? 

9.  Will  not  free  coinage  place  us  at  once  on  a  financial  level 
with  Mexico,  India  and  China,  and  can  we  afford  to  go  upon  that 
level? 

10.  Is  there  any  country  in  the  world  to-day  which  gives  free 
and  unlimited  Coinage  to  silver?  Mexico  does  not.  India  does  not. 
None  of  the  Central  or  South  American  states  does.  We  know  of 
no  country  that  does,  of  no  example  that  can  be  studied. 

11.  Is  there  any  country  in  the  world  now  on  the  silver  basis 
which  is  as  prosperous  as  the  United  States,  even  in  this  time  of 
depression?  Is  there  any  in  which  wages  are  so  high  as  they  are 
here,  or  in  which  the  dollar  received  in  wages  will  buy  so  much? 
Is  there  any  silver-basis  country  that  has  a  large  commerce,  pros¬ 
perous  manufacturers  or  a  well-to-do  agricultural  class?  Is  there 
one  in  which  gold  circulates  or  is  used  as  money?  Is  it  not  a  fact 
that  in  every  silver-basis  country  in  the  world  abject  and  hopeless 
poverty  on  the  par  of  the  masses  is  the  rule? 

12.  Will  you  explain  to  us  for  our  enlightenment  and  guidance 
how  our  country  is  to  escape  like  conditions  if  we  go  to  silver 
basis,  or  how  we  are  to  avoid  the  lapse  to  that  basis  if  we  adopt 
free  and  unlimited  coinage  at  16  to  1  when  the  commercial  ratio 
between  the  metals  is  about  twice  that? 

13.  And  if  you  tell  us,  as  many  free-coinage  advocates  do,  that 
free-coinage  will  raise  the  commercial  value  of  silver  to  the  coinage 
rate,  will  you  explain  to  us  how  in  that  case  free-coinage  is  to  make 
money  cheaper  or  easier  to  get,  how  it  is  to  relieve  “the  debtor 
class,”  how  is  it  to  increase  the  price  of  wheat  or  any  other  com¬ 
modity? 

14.  You  may  be  aware  that  there  was  last  year  on  deposit  in 
the  savings  banks  of  this  state  alone  $643,873,574.  This  enormous 
sum  belonged  to  1,615,178  depositors,  giving  an  average  to  each  of 
$398.63.  It  represents  mainly  the  small  savings  of  the  thrifty  poor. 
Nearly  all  of  it  has  been  deposited  since  the  present  standard  of 
value  was  adopted  by  the  Government.  Do  you  think  it' fair  or 
just  to  impair  by  47  per  cent.,  or  by  even  1  per  cent.,  the  value  of 
the  money  in  which  these  deposits  were  earned  and  in  which  to-day 
they  would  be  paid? 

15.  There  are  in  this  state  88,719  pensioners.  They  drew 
from  the  Government  last  year  nearly  $14,000,000.  Considering 
the  nature  of  this  debt  of  honor — when  justly  due — can  you  look 
with  favor  upon  any  policy  that  might  result  in  paying  them  in  a 
depreciated  currency? 


16 


NEW  YORK  WORLD  EDITORIAL. 


16.  There  are  in  the  country  5,838  building  and  loan  associa¬ 
tions,  of  which  418  are  in  New  York.  These  associations  have 
r,745,725  shareholders — all  of  the  working  and  saving  classes. 
Their  assets  last  year  were  $450,667,594,  represented  chiefly  by 
mortgage  loans  to  home-seekers,  of  whom  455,000  are  members  of 
the  associations.  These  associations  have  nearly  all  been  organ¬ 
ized  within  the  last  fifteen  years  under  the  existing  money  standard. 
Can  you  think  it  fair  or  beneficial  to  the  working  people  to  reduce 
by  47  per  cent.,  or  any  lesser  sum,  the  value  of  these  investments 
of  the  thrifty  poor? 

17.  Is  it  not  a  fact  worth  consideration  in  proposing  a  descent 
to  the  silver  standard  that  the  thirty-nine  old-style  life  insurance 
companies  alone  doing  business  in  this  state  last  year  had  in  force  \ 
here  nearly  2,000,000  policies,  insuring  over  $5,000,000,000?  The 
assessment  companies  and  various  benevolent  orders  have  a  vast 
amount  more.  Would  it  not  be  an  injury  and  a  wrong  to  the 
beneficiaries  of  these  policies — the  widows  and  orphans  whom  a 
provident  love  had  sought  to  protect — to  compel  them  to  receive 
in  payment  depreciated  money? 

18.  The  “rise  in  prices”  which  you  predict  as  a  result  of  free 
silver  coinage  would,  of  course,  mean  an  increase  in  the  cost  of 
living  to  all  the  people — to  wage-earners,  salaried  men  and  the 
whole  body  of  consumers.  Do  you  know  of  any  case  in  which  a 
rise  in  wages  or  salaries  has  been  parallel  with  the  rise  in  prices 
Is  there  any  way  to  render  it  certain,  or  even  probable,  that  th 
wage-earners  will  be  compensated  for  the  increased  cost  of  living 

19.  You  attribute  the  decline  in  silver  to  the  demonetizatior 
of  the  silver  dollar  in  1873,  though  that  dollar  was  not  then  coineci 
in  any  considerable  numbers,  and  was  not  in  circulation  at  all 
owing  to  the  fact  that  silver  bullion  was  worth  more  in  the  marke 
than  at  the  mint.  Do  you  not  consider  that  the  increase  in  th( 
world’s  silver  production  from  61, 100,000  ounces  in  1873  to  165, 
900,000  ounces  in  1895  had  something  to  do  in  causing  this  decline 
even  though  gold,  the  standard  money  of  all  the  great  commercia 
nations,  and  the  most  sought  after  of  money  metals,  has  also  in 
creased  its  yield  meanwhile? 

1  20.  You  speak  of  the  “crime  against  silver”  involved  in  su 

pending  the  coinage  of  non-circulating  dollars.  Has  your  atte 
tion  been  called  to  the  fact  that  the  government  coined  only  296,60;',. 
silver  dollars  in  1873,  but  that  from  Jan.  1  to  June  30  of  this  yeajj;! 
it  coined  7,500,412,  or  908,691  MORE  than  in  the  entire  eight 
one  years  of  its  history  up  to  1873? 


